They might rarely be on show, but socks have been governed by some of the strictest style rules that the magazines offer. The stylists are full of tips on what you can and can’t do with your feet and for a long time, the best advice was to stay simple and disguise them as much as you possibly can.

Over the last couple of years the style-lines have been relaxed somewhat, and practices which were once frowned upon are now very much encouraged. Here, we’ll take a look at just what’s now in fashion when it comes to your socks.

Snazzy feet in the office

Take a trip to your typical city building several years ago, and practically every male in the vicinity would be donning a pair of those bland, black socks. Anything else was regarded as obscene – but now the situation has altered.

While some of the old school companies will retain such policies, the amount of city-types wearing the most colourful socks on the market has changed. In fact, some people have gone as far as suggesting that the louder a person’s socks, the bigger their ego is in the office or boardroom.

The socks n’ sandals craze

Something that was even worse than turning up to work in a pair of fancy socks, was turning up to anywhere in a combination of socks and sandals. In fact, certain high-street stores ran studies which confirmed that this was the number one fashion faux pas that anyone could make.

This is something else which has made a drastic transformation. Celebrities turned fashion designers Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen have both been seen donning sandals with white socks, and this has seemed to prompt a barrage of fashion editors endorsing the style and claiming it’s the next big thing in the industry.

Up to your knees in them

It would be fair to say that wearing knee-high socks was another of those infamous faux-pas’ at one stage. Admittedly, it wasn’t quite as boundary-breaking as some of the other trends we’ve discussed, but very few people could pull the look off successfully.

Over the last couple of years the fashion gurus have been swaying back towards this trend, although again it has taken another celebrity to thrust it into the public eye. Taylor Swift was recently spotted wearing the knee-high socks as she strutted down the street and suffice to say, this automatically means that the ladies sock market has followed suite.

Socks and high heels

There’s some fashion phrases which just don’t sound “right", and “socks and high heels" is one of them. It’s probably the reason why very few women even dared to attempt the style for a number of years – up until recently, anyway.

The press used to have a field day if a celebrity was spotted with this combination, but this year it’s perfectly acceptable. Scrap that, it’s actually fashionable – just like all four of the trends that have been highlighted through this post.